The right-wing advocacy group based its report card on “25 bills in the U.S. House of Representatives and 20 bills in the U.S. Senate. The bills selected cover a wide range of issues including fiscal and economic, social and cultural, and national security, and are designed to reflect how lawmakers view the role of government in an individual’s life.”

In addition, “ACU Foundation double-weighted the vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and another to re-impose government control of the internet,” it said in a statement.

Former U.S.Reps. Pat Meehan, Bill Shuster, and Charlie Dent, along with new freshmen Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon and Susan Wild, did not receive a score due to absences for at least one-third of the votes selected by the conservatives’ group.

In a statement, the group’s chairman, Matt Schlapp, high-fived the Trump administration for “[continuing] its push for conservative policies and nominees” last year.

“In response, the Senate took action to confirm a number of judges and achieved a landmark political victory to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, but Congress (and especially the House which operates under a simple “majority rules” system) mostly squandered an historic opportunity to implement meaningful conservative policy solutions, including funding a wall on our southern border, repealing and replacing Obamacare, and passing signature work requirements in conjunction with nutrition or welfare benefits,” he continued. “One bright spot was when conservatives of both chambers led the fight to pass the First Step Act. We struggled to find bills to score because of Congress’ big whiff, but in the end we were able to find a sufficient number of votes to reflect a members’ adherence to conservative principles.”

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An award-winning political journalist with more than 25 years' experience in the news business, John L. Micek is The Pennsylvania Capital-Star's Editor-in-Chief.
Before joining The Capital-Star, Micek spent six years as Opinion Editor at PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., where he helped shape and lead a multiple-award-winning Opinion section for one of Pennsylvania's most-visited news websites.
Prior to that, he spent 13 years covering Pennsylvania government and politics for The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa. His career has also included stints covering Congress, Chicago City Hall and more municipal meetings than he could ever count,
Micek contributes regular analysis and commentary to a host of broadcast outlets, including CTV-News in Canada and talkRadio in London, U.K., as well as "Face the State" on CBS-21 in Harrisburg, Pa.; "Pennsylvania Newsmakers" on WGAL-8 in Lancaster, Pa., and the Pennsylvania Cable Network. His weekly column on American politics is syndicated nationwide to more than 800 newspapers by Cagle Syndicate.